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This feels familiar. I've done this before. I've effectively quit drinking sodas and fountain drinks, consuming only water, several times before. But each time I successfully quit, someone would say, "Hey, you look like you're losing weight!" and I'd feel great about it and I would literally think, "You can have ONE soda drink. To celebrate! And because you haven't had one in weeks or a month." Next thing I know, I'm stashing sprite cans in my bedroom. (Because my roommate will drink them, if I don't. I'm not THAT far gone, people.)
So, today, I gave up sodas. Again.
I'm partially motivated by Harry Knowles who is cutting down on all of his sweets and had the gastric band surgery, because he's barreling down towards Type 2 diabetes. And that's something I could imagine in my own future. If I don't get my own sugar intake under control. By cutting way down, now, I hope to be able to enjoy moderate, infrequent sweets long into my old age. Thinking ahead, you see.
Today, for breakfast, I had a bagle w/cream cheese and a water. For lunch, I had a small tuna sandwich from Jimmy John's and water. For dinner, two burritos (normally I have three) and water. For desert, I was allowed a small tumbler of grape juice. I know that the grape juice was loaded with sugar. But that's a nice change for me. I normally have some sort of juice or soda with every meal. So, a single glass of juice in the evening is a nice change.
I'm also partially motivated by what I perceive to be some weight gain recently. On top of the extra weight that I'm normally carrying around, I feel like I've been carrying more lately. I look bigger to me. And I hate it. I want a change. And cutting several thousand calories out of my intake each day, just by eliminating sodas is a good start.
And this time, there won't be any celebratory sodas to congratulate me on the change. This time, they're staying gone. For as long as I can fucking manage it.
I was also thinking recently about how in the past 100 years or so, sodas has become the staple drink of every meal, except breakfast. Before then, around the turn of the century, soda was a treat that you and your gal enjoyed on a date.
Or as a reward for winning a ballgame. It wasn't a drink to keep on stock in the house. You went out to get it to the soda jerk and you enjoyed it socially.With an active lifestyle, this very moderate consumption of soda kept the citizens fit and healthy longer. You don't see pictures from the turn of the century of 300 lb people wallowing around on the beach. It just wasn't done.
But over the years, as The Big Business of Coke, urged us to consume, consume, consume, we've been sold us on the idea that we ALL deserve a treat, with every meal. With free refills! And if you upsize it to a mega-large, it's only a quarter more. I mean, it's a quarter more! It's like you've already bought it. Might as well pay the quarter and get a drink so large that you need both hands to carry it, right?!? RIGHT?!?
Well, I fucking hate it when some nameless, faceless corporate hack has set the beat by which I am to march by. It's bad for me. It's killing me slowly. And I DO have alternative. So, why KEEP consuming this sugary carbonated crap, when there's no good reason to do so?!?
So, I kicked the coke monkey off my back (again) tonight with every intention of seeing this one through. Maybe this will help lower my sugar count, hold off diabetes and high blood pressure and give me a body that I am proud to display at inappropriate social occasions.
That's the goal, anyways.
Cheers,
Mr.B
13 comments:
Get out of my head, Biddle.
I just jettisoned all caffeine, starting yesterday. It's wrecking with my body and my brain and it needs to stop. Water, water, water.
I'm looking at you next, alcohol.
when I quit drinking soda (even though I drank diet...still totally bad for me) I noticed a difference in my skin, my hair, my weight AND the biggest deal for me...I slept through the night for the first time in like 20 years. Keep it up and you will see big changes!
ALSO (sorry...this is just a topic I am very into because I just went through it) drinking more water is key to feeling and looking better. It's so easy to forget to actually hydrate when you are drinking soda because it feels like you are getting liquid but it's actually a diuretic which is bad news.
So you know, way to go you!
As a non-caffeine drinker (I cut it out when I was up to a 2-liter a day in college) allow me to add additional suggestions to your drink routine so you can avoid getting bored by just plain water.
1) Milk - One glass of milk with dinner is quite good. If you need to treat yourself with a little sugar, chocolate that stuff up.
2) Flavored seltzer!! - You get the pleasant fizz of soda with just a suggestion of fruity taste. I recommend orange or cherry. Just make sure you get the kind that only contains carbonated water and natural flavor (some come with saccharin, those are gross.)
Good luck Mr. B.
yes and decaf iced tea is great too and good for you.
I'm also fond of the crystal lite water additive thingys too... taste pretty good and makes water a little better than just water. I also bought one of those HUGE cups for my desk... as long as I fill that up I will drink it instead of diet coke, though you will never break me of my love for diet coke... heck I even heart TAB! :D
@ Bran:
Gotta tell you, back in 2004 I dropped Diet Coke out of my diet -- only change to the diet, mind you -- and I lost over five extra pounds in two weeks.
I firmly believe that diet sodas are actually worse for your body than regular soda. Might as well enjoy the one-time special can of RC than a case of Coke Zero.
At Matt's suggestion, I purchased flavored seltzer water last night (WILD CHERRY!) and it's pretty good. It does have the happy fizz that I like and it's a little bit sweet. AND ZERO CALORIES!
I had a single cup of it with dinner last night and I found that even though I liked it, I drank less of it. If it was in a can, I would've had about half a can, total, with dinner.
So, I think I've found a viable alternative to soda. Thanks, Matt!
you can drink as much seltzer water as you want. it's got nothing in it. It's just like water. I grew up on that stuff. LaCroix is the best...well Mendota Springs is but you have to go to Wisco for that.
Sorry if this bursts your bubble, but the calories and the sugar are in actuality not the worst thing about carbonated beverages. It's the carbonation itself (so what I'm about to write does apply to seltzer also). Carbonated "water" is a misnomer. It is really CARBONIC ACID, and what acid does is ruin the pH in one's digestive tract. In fact, one will need to drink TEN glasses of water to re-balance the pH in one's stomach after drinking 12 ounces of carbonated beverage. When a person's pH is out of whack, it interferes with digestion, can cause skin problems, bloating and a host of other yucky chronic troubles.
Meats are also very acidic, but most leafy greens and veggies are alkaline (especially asparagus). Also, lemon juice is a great alkalizer. I know, you would think it was acidic, right? But look it up if you don't believe me. I suggest squeezing some fresh lemon juice into your water to perk it up. Works wonders!
Hey,
Thanks for the tips, there, Mrs. Anonymous. (I'm giving you a feminine gender designation solely on the grounds that you used the term "one" to describe yourself. That strikes me as a feminine turn of phrase.)
Just to clarify, here's the deets on the new diet (with parenthetical comparisons to my old habits).
80% of everything that I drink, going forward will be water. Water with lunch and dinner. (That used to be sodas with both.) Any thirst at home will be quenched with water (I used to keep cans of coke around for that. Or juice.) I am giving myself permission to have an occasional juice, as needed. Even though, I am well aware that it's really high in sugar. So, those will be curbed, as well.
No more ice cream, cupcakes cookies, candy, brownies, muffins, donuts, fritters, crullers or potato chips. (I just realized that I've gotten into the habit of permitting a desert after nearly every meal. This is unnacceptable.)
I'm also eating only when I'm hungry. I've gotten in the habit of eating at noon, every day. Which I don't always need. So, no more meals of convenience.
I'm also limiting portions. I've been eating like a big man for a while now. Partially out of laziness but also because meal portions are doled out at the processed food eateries in GIGANTIC portions. Either way, I'm being the gatekeeper of my food portions. If I can order less, I will. If I can't, then I'll eat less of whatever I've ordered.
I've been advised that I can supplant all of the baked sugary goods with fruits. So, that will become my focus, when i am craving a sweet. (I'm also getting in the habit of just denying the craving for sweets. It's a little embarrasing, but I DO catch myself thinking, "Go get a cookie. It's right around the corner. And you can handle ONE cookie!" I sound like a cookie junkie.)
I got offered a cookie today as a reward for helping one of my co-workers with a big project. I ended up shaving 3 to 4 hours off of her project by working Excel like a wiz. I politely thanked her and felt good about the decision to avoid the "reward cookie".
The next steps that I see are to A.) Learn how to cook at home and B.) Develop a more comprehensive exercise schedule. If I can lower my caloric intake and up my exercise routine, I will soon find myself looking like the rock-hard fuck machine that I imagine myself being.
Jokes, kids, jokes.
Thanks for the advice about acids, Mrs. Anonymous. That's definitely stuff to think about.
Cheers,
COB
Well, if you want help learning to cook, I can assist with that. I have a few amazing cookbooks that are way underused in my teeny, no-space kitchen.
don't skip meals though dude. If you don't eat lunch you are WAY more likely to over eat at dinner and justify it by saying "well I didn't eat lunch". Just eat small meals all day and you will up your metabolizzizzy a shit load and that's how you lose weight.
Unfortunately, my schedule at work doesn't allow me times to eat a bunch of small meals all day long to keep my metabolism purring the way that I would like it to. The concession that I make is that I eat in moderation, when I am hungry. I don't eat out of convenience or on someone else's schedule. And I only eat a modest portion when I do eat. The idea being that I can limit my caloric intake during a day to managable levels. And then figure out ways to burn some more of those calories at the gym, at the swimming pool or whatever.
Merrily We Roll Along,
Mr.B
PS. Quick update. Over the memorial day weekend, I only had sodas twice. Once at a bar, when I forgot. And at the movie theater, when someone bought me a soda. (And I wasn't going to throw away a $4 soda that someone had purchased for me.) Otherwise, I was pretty good over the weekend. I never over-ate. I ate when I was hungry. And I ate normal portions, when I did eat.
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